i may have mentioned this 497 times (more or less), but my appetite’s still shite, and it should not be because i’m in my 8th month, where the food monster should rightfully have reared its ugly head and make up for the lost months of eating atrociously.

i CAN drink though, and my current thing is sunkist orange juice. by the litre. mmmmm.

some days, though, i’d get nostalgic and go for nasi padang, which is kinda like comfort food for me, for some reason (you know, like scrambled eggs with kicap, or home-peeled-and-cut fried potatoes).

nasi padang reminds me of those occasional saturday mornings at arab st with the family when i was younger. the ikan bakar with kicap and lime, the lauk lemak ayam, the rendang, the achar… and this coming from someone who’s not much of a rice eater in the first place!

the husband is a huge rice fan (then again, he’s a huge fan of food, period), and well, whichever place i’ve been to eat, he’d tell me of another place where it’s EVEN better. so i haven’t eaten at s/ab/ar m/en/an/ti for a loooong time, coz he insists nasi padang’s nicer (and cheaper) at hjh r/at/na, tucked away in a coffeeshop at beach road.

actually, we wouldn’t say nasi padang’s cheap, coz it’s not! all those small dishes *do* add up, but we credit it to the difficulty in preparing each dish, and such a variety at that. plus, rice is VERY EXPENSIVE now, hor??

aaaaaanyway, yeah, it’s pretty good, at least good enough for me to clean off a whole plate each time. again, very unlike me. (but just don’t give me the same thing everyday lah.)

so, other foods that i *can* stomach?

why, ice-cream, of course.

yes, even (or especially) the cheapo 50 cents mcdonald’s cone – aiyah, the cheaper the better lor! right? ;p

0

  

yes yes, very sibuk lor, lol!

this week’s theme is Strawberries & Chocolate, apparently. lots of requests for this particular flavour! but we’re moving on to more exciting, and very challenging, stuff next week so… good luck to us, hehe. (photos will be up later when, again, i see sunlight.)

meanwhile, not only the aunties are having pajama parties – even the little ones are, literally. :)

i *swear* i didn’t buy those pjs for him, ok! his oma did!

yes, the damdils do sleep over occasionally, when their mommies are beating ‘deadlines’! and what do they do to amuse themselves? their ‘chief’, aka aniq, would run around after the other two and make them squeal and giggle, engage in pillow fights, fling around various pieces of blocks, and well, creating general pandemonium. while the daddies watch football matches on tv. and their mummies neglect them from being absorbed with solving tricky nip/tuck procedures.

ok, maybe i should mention about the unborn one for a bit too.

went to see the doc on weds, but two more patients before my turn, he had to rush out to deliver a baby whose head was already visible at the ‘exit’, hehe. i think the storks were also busy with their ‘orders’, like the W&F team, coz a few more were being delivered after that.

so, i had to head down again today, and thankfully, no babies were emerging from their mommies’ thingamajigs. which gave us time for a nice long chat with the doc, who once again said i gotta go exercise my tummy muscles BEFORE i get pregnant again – WHAT?!? exercise?? get pregnant again?? the thought of doing both is enough to give me a multiple dose of braxton-hicks.

the baby’s head is still not heading southwards, which got me a bit worried coz aniq was already at the right position when i was in my 7th month with him. doc said i’ve still got a month or so to go, so there’s still time for a turnaround. he did discuss what would happen if she decided to appear butt-first. basically, it’d be easy for the butt to come out, since it’s smaller than the head, but getting the head out if you’re not fully dilated, would be a problem – the thought of the baby with its neck stuck is, well, not very pleasant. :S

haiyah, very depressing lah. ok ok, happy thoughts!

lemme have some ben & jerry’s. and maybe whip up more ‘ingredients’ for our next cake… macam real jer, kalah buat kek betol. hehe. but hey, i do know of women who go into cooking or baking frenzy, and go all domestic during their pregnancy. do the babies come out, well, picking up this trait as part of their future personality? hmm… (if that’s the case, my mum must’ve been real lousy in the kitchen when she had me lor!)

0

  

it was about time i got hold of this.

pretty, no?

i thought it’d bloom so fast and so big that it’d jump right out of the large-sized corningware pot i’d plonked it in, but disappointingly, it didn’t. it still looks pretty smallish, so i guess i still have a bit of waiting to do before the wriggly-person-inside-me makes her debut appearance.

am procrastinating on actually drinking the stuff, though, so no, happy hours have not begun yet. next month, for sure.

the procrastination bit has extended to all other things related to wriggly-person-inside-me. her room has unofficially turned into Whims & Fancies’ HQ, her cot has turned into W&F’s product showcase mantle, little clothes that should belong to her are still not bought, one of the brand new tights i’d gotten has been ‘sacrificed’ for a W&F order (lol!), and i think the only cute little thing i did buy (and will NOT sacrifice) are a pair of the sweetest green mothercare shoes that was on sale while shopping for W&F supplies and i couldn’t help myself despite my no-shoes-before-walking rule that i’d imposed on her brother. (see? more rules out of the window. sigh.)

physical-wise, am getting s-l-o-w-e-r and s–l–o–w–e–r at walking. i don’t know how many times i’d told the spouse he was walking too fast, even though i know he’s trudging away at his normal slack speed. just today, i was moaning in woe about my body and its decelerated functions, in hope of a scrap of sympathy (like an “alah, kesiaaaan my wife”, or something to that effect, perhaps). i even suggested he carry me up the steps of the carpark. well, fat hope, coz all i got was an exaggerated slow-motion waddle in imitation of his un-kesian-able wife, and a snigger.

and don’t get me started on the toddler, who’s virtually a running machine. that, i’d never catch up with. the trick is, to have him hold my hand while we walk and NOT LET GO, EVER. he actually doesn’t mind this, but it means keeping a steady stream of running commentary and conversation for the whole distance. he generally doesn’t stray much when i’m alone with him, though. well, that is, until he spots a cat from a 100 miles away, then it’s running machine all the way to the unsuspecting feline, which would invariably run for cover, just as its instincts tell it to. except for little kittens who don’t know any better – he’d pick them up, yes with his bare hands, and carry it around for a walk. nevermind if they occasionally try to nip him with their tiny teeth. a mini siegfried & roy, he is.

ok, i think i’ve sat on my butt long enough. all this weight’s cutting off the blood circulating to my legs, you know. (did i tell you i have bruised-looking veins and broken capillaries camping out at the back of my legs? well, they have. maybe that’s why i’m walking soooo sloooowly now. i need a stroller. i need to learn how to teleport.)

0

  

aniq’s new cousin! i’ve always had a soft spot for little boys, probably coz my firstborn’s a boy. just one of those mother’s bias hehe.

about ten hours after being induced, he was squeezed out, all 3.92kg of him, with epidural administered at one minute apart. =O

and it seems that the lil fella didn’t have much space or he liked a particular position inside his nine-month home, coz his feet are curled inwards. i’d never noticed baby’s feet like that, so i was quite fascinated. in any case, i hope my lil one inside has more than enough room to move and kick about (i KNOW she moves and kicks about – a lot – especially at two in the morning, grrr), so maybe a huge tummy/womb may serve a good purpose after all. and i’m also hoping that the ‘lowness’ of my tummy will help the baby come out faster/easier, since it’s already, err, so near the ‘exit sign’. you think? :S

ok, shan’t think of that for now. there’s no way we can predict what will happen in the delivery room anyway.

let’s focus on the present! here are the two energetic monkeys at, as the littler one would say, “oma aus” (oma’s house). yes, he speaks germanish hehe.

other than chase each other around the house, they also make up their own games, like the “big-small” game (of which the origin and rules escape me), hold conversations (with bursts of gun-shooting sound effects in between), make a mega mess out of lego bits, fight for their oma’s attention (and make her sing ‘buai laju-laju’ while she lies down and swings them on her legs – free exercise regime, no need for gyms!) oh, and she also kicks balls around with them, and when aniq says “oma, ek-sais!”, she obliges by leading them in stretching exercises. i swear.

my mum must be going mad at home. i think i would, hehe. :p

0

  

a lotta exciting things have been happening to many, many people over the weekend.

congrats to the need-i-mention-gorgeous-couple nurul & sofian…

and congrats to the mummies of the new babies who just popped out!

namely ogy (baby aqil), an ol’ tkg friend herda (baby adlynn – darn, there goes another A name i can’t use now, hehe), and…

MY NEW NEPHEW, WHOSE NAME I DON’T EVEN KNOW YET!! (but should start with A too, to follow his older brother, adam.)

he came out right on the dot on the day he’s supposed to. and he’s a hefty one, weighing in at 3.92kg. (can i say “OH. MY. GAWD!”?) nevermind, another cousin for aniq to wrestle with!

so, when will this baby A come out, then?? *looks down at heeyuuuuge tummy hanging down almost to my ankles.*

the makciks at the wedding just now were staring SO HARD at it already. not just the makciks, but also the nyonyas, wherever i go. “wow, look at that circus freak,” they’re saying (i think). gah!

0

  

because more baby girls came out of the oven and said “gimme something sweet!”

*****

and speaking of babies, i bought myself a measuring tape earlier today, and o.m.g.

the girth of my tummy is already EXACTLY 100 CM!

which is madness coz i measured at 100cm when i was nine months with aniq!!

:O

and yes, i look like a fat, juicy boysenberry jam pie myself in my purple baju butterfly makcik-makcik, which i finally unearthed from the inner belly of my cupboard.

0

  

i realise that i’ve been letting myself do a lot of “wrong” things for this pregnancy. i’m not sure whether it’s subconscious, or whether there could actually be a rebellious, defiant streak running through my hormones this time round.

now let me count the ways:

1) a weakness for – tea! top of the list being iced lemon tea. or plain ol’ hot tea, with or without milk, depending on where i’m having it. i know know know that caffeine is bad, evil, wicked, etc, especially during pregnancy. and when other (bad, evil, wicked, etc) people tell me that it’s ok to have just one cup a day, i take their word for it. this hardly happened the last time. i was religious with my daily HL milk, soya bean and watermelon juice, all that good stuff. i do try too now as well, but for a good number of months, my tastebuds refused to cooperate and those just weren’t my cuppa tea (so to speak).

2) highlighted my hair. ok, ok, so it was more like highlights and colour. but i DID tell the hairdresser to keep AWAY from my roots and scalp, AND he used foil, if that’s any consolation. and i tried not to inhale the peroxide fumes too much (which, by the way, is doable enough coz these new hair dyes hardly smell at all). i know that doctors would say hair dye is not harmful to the baby, and scientists would say the risk is negligible (i was already well into my second trimester after all, and in serious need of a pick-me-up, having just turned thirty and all), but two years ago, it’d be unthinkable for me to mess around with chemicals while carrying another human being in my body. “how irresponsible!”, i would say. but now, i guess, erm, perspectives… change?

3) *achtung: bimbo alert* – slacked on mascara application. (go ahead, LOL or roll your eyes, or do both now!) see, i have this theory that my daily mascara use during the first pregnancy was the ONLY reason why my firstborn came to have such long, luscious, curled-up lashes where his parents seriously lack in that department. i mean, we couldn’t have skipped a generation of blessed eyelash genes, could we? in any case, i don’t have the time to primp my lashes these days, and i can’t seem to find the right mascara anymore. (although i must say, i DO have an inexplicable obsession with eyeshadow this time round… hmm, what does this mean…?)

4) “forget” to take the daily cocktail mix of folicacid-obimin-calcium-DHA-etc on some days. oh well. let’s blame it on those “forgetful” pregnant women hormones, shall we?

5) did more unthinkable – became another kind of drug junkie. ingested various cough syrups, popped flu pills, begged for antibiotics… and this coming from someone who can barely stand panadol (being allergic to painkillers) and who avoids drugs, refusing to depend on pfizer et al whenever possible. but my immune system seems to be shot to hell this time round, getting sick more often than usual, and i just want it to go away quickly so i could deal with the more pressing issue of getting myself comfortable with this growing uterus and all, thus the non-resistance to drugs and drug-induced wooziness (which i really, really hate).

6) have negative thoughts. this i can’t elaborate much, but they just seem to sneak up and threaten to devour me like hungry, vicious, venomous serpents… ok, that was a tad overdramatic! i think perhaps i haven’t been as mentally prepared to have another little person in my life as i thought i would be. different from the first pregnancy, when i was more active, had more energy and higher spirits, more independence and freedom. though not to say that i’m not thankful for being blessed with a girl to complete the yin to my yang, of course! (yes, note to self: must keep up with similarly positive thoughts. ohmmm…)

7) neglect eating properly. well yeah, i’ve always had a problem with this, pregnant or otherwise, but things are a little screwy on the actual act of eating itself – i’m just too lazy to look for food! sure, i can eat rice just fine this time (nasi padang is comforting, for the strangest reason), where during the previous pregnancy, the smell of rice turned me off big time. and where i had my fix of fries almost daily the last time, some fries taste like cardboard to me now. see, told you it’s all screwy. food. bah! i givap!

8 ) raided the husband’s wardrobe and pilfered his drabbest tshirts and shorts to sleep in. ok, so this is not “wrong” per se – just very unglam and unsexy. unthinkable indeed! but all my sleepwear are deemed hopelessly uncomfortable at this point, and i’m too cheapskate to buy new ones, so thank god for husbands and their big tshirts and shorts.

9) have not bought or prepared anything for the impending bundle of joy, and we have only two more months left. well, except for those three pairs of baby tights. how essential, right? ha ha.

10) totally forsaken cocoa butter and other forms of stretchmark-prevention. yup, i’ve lost it. my body is no longer a sacred temple. i care not for the threatening silvery lines about to be forever etched onto my skin, just like a tattoo… i’ll always have you – eh wait, isn’t that a song…? anyway, i figure, who cares? we SHOULD be proud of our stretchmarks, dammit! they’re real battle scars, ok! even the bravest warriors and gladiators never held such honour of being pregnant and going through labour, alright!

so there. i can’t believe i came up with ten things. i thought maybe five, six at most. i am now officially a depraved mother.

the good news though: my hair and skin are very well-behaved. so those rebellious, defiant hormones must be doing some good after all.

***

ok, this picture is totally unrelated, but i just like it very muchly, so i’m putting it here because i HAVE to put at least one picture to balance off an unnecessarily verbose post such as the one above. (and as a reminder that perhaps there is hope after all in my rocky world of motherhood.)

0

  

the first thing i checked with the doc yesterday during my monthly check up was whether it’s STILL a girl.

the good news is: it still is. heh.

the bad news is: my low tummy is likely due to my laziness at exercising after the first baby, hah! weak muscles = flabby womb, you know. so, first-time mummies, let this be a lesson! but ugh, the thought of tummy crunches turns me off, so nevermind, another reason for me to stop at two. or i foresee my tummy hanging down to my knees the next time round. eew.

at this point, the scans of the baby aren’t too exciting coz the baby’s grown too large to be seen in full on the screen, so the doc could only show us parts of the blurry images which i, after two babies, still am very bad at deciphering what is what. ok, the head is easy enough, being round and all.

baby is now almost 1.4 kg, mummy has gained all of 7 kg, EDD stands at 17 april. well, give or take two weeks.

the doc offered me ventolin nebuliser for my phlegmy chest, and so, seeing that the clinic was TOTALLY empty that morning (a miracle, i tell ya!), i had my feet on the sofa and breathed in the damn thing for twenty minutes. i also wanted to know what was it about the nebuliser that kids absolutely hate, and the aftermath, as i find out, was a palpitating heart, shaky hands, and plain jittery-ness. the phlegm was still there, but i guess with all the other meds, i slept somewhat better at night.

aaaaanyway, the highlight of the day was aniq’s first trip to the dentist. i’d psyched him up by telling him over the past few days that we’re bringing him to a doctor who is going to brush his teeth, and we got him to practice opening his mouth when instructed, hehe. so by that day, he knew that he was going to the “entist” to “ush teef”.

the dentist discussed with us about his daily diet and brushing habits, showed us the proper way to brush his baby teeth, and warmed him up with a teeth model for him to brush…

then it was on to the dentist’s chair with daddy! he had his teeth counted (17 in all for now, including one erupted molar), brushed properly (without any biting or chewing, like he does with his own toothbrush at home), and some stains scraped off (due to the iron-rich spinach he eats). and all throughout, he simply kept his mouth opened compliantly like a good patient, and kept very still, allowing the dentist to do his thang. kinda like when he has his haircuts, actually. i think he’s a funny little boy like that, always taking in new experiences in a curious, adult way.

you know how dentists, like in movies, tend to give kids a lollipop at the end of their visit? i always thought it strange and disturbing that they do that, or it could be a conspiracy to keep the kids’ parents coming back to give them more business. but thankfully, no candies were in sight, only a toy as a reward. phew!

and as our reward to him, we brought him to the botanic garden nearby to run around and feed the fishies. :)

check out my teeth!

i must add that i myself like going to the dentist, never having a bad experience before – well, except that the pocket hurts most during visits. (why are dental checkups so expensive?!)

i remember my mum used to be very insistent in reminding us to brush our teeth every night since i was small, so i know dental hygiene is important, and i guess it’s subconsciously passed down to me now that i’m a mother myself. so yeah, call it the kiasu-mother-syndrome or whatever, but i think it’s an investment coz… do you know just how freaking expensive braces and extractions cost?? (i’ve never needed them, but i’ve heard!)

0

  

no no, i didn’t have a boo-boo. but that first-aid kit we bought came in handy after all, coz it had lotsa strips of plaster for multi-purpose use.

yes yes, driven out of desperation, i taped down my bellybutton to look vaguely decent in my dress for a wedding.

oi, don’t say “eww so gross!” ok.

this is pregnancy, in all its warts and glory. :p

oh, and as a footnote, do NOT rip plaster off in a hurry if you attempt this. i miscalculated and totally forgot about the fine hairs and sensitive skin that comes with a growing belly, so it was something short of a mini-brazilian-wax experience. heh.

0

  

every time someone asks when i’m due (which is what they’re always asking now), it makes me feel like crying.

can someone please make tomorrow be 1st of april??

ps: and to the person with many names/emails, don’t try to lie to get the information you want. you’ve asked one too many questions, and you’re right, it IS damn frustrating! all the way from 2004 (yes, i still have your emails with all your irritating queries), you have been bugging me about my wedding preparations, my baby preparations, my relationship, my friends, bugging us to meet you, etc, right down to my freaking hair colour! come on, enough is enough! you ask once or twice – fine. but repeatedly? who’s the “ignorant” one here? go find your own resources, i’m NOT humouring YOU anymore, and i don’t owe you any favours. don’t expect people to spoonfeed you all the time, and don’t mess with a sick and pregnant lady – i’ll claw your eyes out if i hear one more peep out of you.

0

  

finally got around to fixing the cot back to its original height, and cleared out the drawers, making separate piles of stained-beyond-redemption baby clothes and still-decently-wearable ones. guess which pile was bigger? :S

am currently at home, sustaining on honey stars with milk. have been violently coughing the past few days, and i think i overstrained my stomach muscles or something coz now whenever i cough, my left abdomen hurts like mad and i feel bruised inside. a little worried that it’s affecting my womb and the baby who keeps quivering every time i cough. she’s probably traumatised and distressed by the constant tsunami my coughs are causing, especially at night. supposed to take antibiotics for the viral infection but can’t, so will have to bear with this misery for a while longer. :S

there’s also the problem with water retention in the “Netherlands”, and my perpetually bruised legs which are popping out more and more purplish-and-green “maps”. both symptoms, apparently, handed down by my mum, who had the exact same thing when she was having me. now you know why pregnant women waddle? simply because they can’t walk with their legs closed. it’s like we have… balls. yuk. only, guys don’t waddle, they ‘swagger’. (well, those with balls, anyway.) sheesh. :S

ok, so as you can see, am not exactly feeling up-and-perky now. gonna go suffer some more with my quivering baby and catch up on all those shows i’ve recorded on SmartTV.

this has been a terrible rant, hasn’t it? :S

0

  

and that’s what he says whenever he enters his room now. :)

i’d prepped him in advance about the impending “big boys’ bed” and asked him if he could give his old bed to baby, which he readily agreed.

so, we FINALLY found the time to ‘migrate’ him to his new bedroom, which was also his playroom, and he was more than happy to adapt and forget totally about the cot next door, thanks to his new bed which he kinda chose.

he’d hopped on a few (at ikea, where else, for the most affordable and suitably-tasteful kids’ furniture, right?) and was taken in with the canopy thing, which we didn’t mind getting for him, coz it’s pretty fun.

heck, i’d crawl in there myself if i wasn’t so fat and pregnant, being a deprived child that i once was. roboh nanti tu benda! wouldn’t want to waste all that effort his uncles and ‘kakak’ hajar put in to assemble it. (thanks eh korang! berguna jugak izad ada adik-beradik ramai, hehe.)

and now, i can let my nesting instinct take over and redecorate the incoming baby’s room! (wait, more things to buy??)

0

  

while the mummy’s been busy claiming her “me” time the past few days (before she runs out of it come april!), the little one had his own fun running around with daddy.

the bonding time has made them much closer too, so i think it should be easier for all of us, especially me, when the new addition arrives and i’ll have me hands full.

and i didn’t say this but thank you laki, for all your help, and for letting your very-unattractively-tempang-and-vericose-vein-infested wife let loose with her girls while she can still walk waddle. :D

ps: i luv this picture i took! (despite the kental orange jersey.) sooo, ahem, is it the camera, the subject, or the photographer that makes a nice picture? hurhur.

pps: speaking of daddies, it would have been his 62nd birthday tomorrow – exactly a month since he’s passed on today.

0

  

question: how many times do you celebrate your 30th birthday?

answer: why, 30 times, of course! :p

enough, no more! we have a 31st birthday to celebrate at the end of THIS year, ok. :S

thanks again eh, even though dah basi macam nasi dalam periuk satu bulan.

speaking of 30, i just collected my new I/C yesterday. why DO we need to change I/Cs at 30 anyway? i think it’s a new policy coz those born in the early 70s like kak nina hasn’t heard of this change-I/C-at-30 rule. no fair! they get to look forever 17 (or whatever age they last made their I/Cs were lah).

i’d done mine as soon as i received the notification, or risked looking waaay unrecognisable nearer the end of this pregnancy, or even post-pregnancy, and look forever fat.

the result? a lopsided, creepy-looking smile, thanks to the unprofessional, home-taken, digitally-photographed picture. bah.

0